Hello from rainy Liverpool!
I’ve only got a couple days left before I head back to the U.S. and it’s starting to hit me that I’m gonna be leaving this “magical” place soon. I still have Scotland in my little list of places to go, so Im not doing my version of “Brexit” yet. Did you get it? I tried to be funny but I don’t think it caught on. Haha! Oh well.
Anyhoo, I feel like we’ve been trying to fit all these things to do and places to go in the little time I have, that’s why it’s been nice to slow down a little in Liverpool.
My cousin Stef has a house and a car in this city, which was perfect because in this part of my trip I was able to save a lot of money from hotels and transportation. Thank you Manang Stef!
On our first morning in Liverpool, it was raining so hard that I almost thought I’d stay in the whole day. I was warned about all the wet days United Kingdom will serve me, but it’s been nothing but nice days and a few drizzles so far.
Despite the day’s rain however, my cousin still toured me around her city. It’s noticeably a complete 360 with the lifestyle of London. Liverpool is a more relaxed, more calm place. People walked slower and the roads were wider and cleaner. It’s all in all, just a very beautiful place.
The “rain-lover” in me was enjoying every bit of the gloom and wetness of the day. I was trying to make my cousin my muse, but all of her photos are of her complaining face because she was already freezing and in a hurry to get away from the cold, wet air and apparently I walked too slow (having myself accustomed to the Liverpool pace.)
The weather wasn’t as cold as Colorado, but it was weirdly quite painful. I developed this sort of young person’s arthritis in this trip that my leg bothered me so much every time I took a step. My old lady body did not agree with my enjoyment of the rain. To make matters worse, my cousin’s hiker of a husband thought it was a great idea to go hiking the next day. Not gonna lie, I did enjoy it, but I definitely struggled.
We drove up around two hours to this little town called Patterdale. Man, I though I lived in a small old town: I’m surprised this place is even running! It was literally a very tiny village kilometers away from the closest city, but somehow they’ve got hotels, AirBnbs and private properties surrounding them. It was one of the quaintest, most peaceful places I’ve ever been to.
We went up the mountains (keep in mind, my leg was still suffering from this weird, unknown arthritis thing) and we did not even bother to use the trails. Eugene was dead-set on this adventure that he wanted to avoid the trails all together. It took us a while before we got to the top, because we took a bunch of photos and even more breaks. At one point we found a little spot to set up our picnic. The view from above was so surreal!
Towards getting to the peak, I was non-stop complaining. I was so tired, and in so much pain. It was also getting colder because the sun was slowly starting to set. I was finding sheep bones everywhere that I was almost convinced we were gonna die there. Eugene told me that I was just being “so OA” (overreacting) and he just wanted us to reach the very top to overcome the whole thing. I was torn between how tired I was and how beautiful the view was.
When we finally got to the very top, I thought we could finally use the trails to go down, but no. We needed to go a completely different route, so we could see a different view. Going down took even longer because, aside from the fact that they were both really fast, and have done this millions of times in more extreme cases, I was also slipping every five seconds. Honestly, I was probably the reason why we took way too many breaks than intended. I was already in a hurry to get this over with, but also, I wanted to still survive; it was such a complicated mix of feelings. I started all happy and bubbly in the beginning of this hike and towards the end I was about to start crying. I love Eugene, but he is quite literally the devil. Haha! At one point, I think he was just enjoying torturing me.
When we finally reached the bottom and the land was level, I was so happy! This hike seemed like a 4/5 difficulty for a beginner like me. Without me, the lovely couple would’ve been able to do it in two hours less. In the end, I just felt very accomplished and proud of myself for being able to conquer this extreme hike, but you know what? I’m never doing it again!
On my last day in Liverpool, it was such a nice sunny day that we decided to spend the day in Sefton Park.
Now, off to Scotland to find me my James McAvoy!!
xx Gizel
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